ustin Bastable, 53, can barely move the mouse across the mousepad, yet his simple words, rendered in large white type against the black background of his website, are forceful:

"At some point in the near future, I expect to die. Through an assisted suicide. But before I die, I want to share my thoughts and feelings with all who will listen...."

Paralyzed by chronic progressive multiple sclerosis, the Windsor, Ontario man has turned his personal desire to end his life into a stark and very public crusade.The vehicle for this mission: the Internet.

A former tool-and-die maker, Bastable has suffered from MS for 26 years. He realized after a failed suicide attempt in November 1994 that any future attempts would require assistance -- ideally, legal assistance. In September 1995, he established an extensive Web site with the help of the Right to Die Society of Canada. The page includes audio clips, portraits, and links to other sites involved in the right-to-die debate. On February 8, 1996, the CBC, Canada's national network, broadcast part two of "Man Alive," a documentary exploring the national campaign to legalize assisted suicide and Bastable's unique role in that campaign.

"Dr. Jack Kevorkian and the American organization Compassion in Dying have described a few of the people they have assisted in suicide, but none of these people extended themselves publicly before the event, like Austin has," says John Hofsess, founder of the Right to Die Society.

Not everyone admires Bastable's campaign. John Hof and Ted Gerk of the Campaign Life Coalition publish the contrarian Save Austin Bastable home page. Their website takes a tone of cheerful presumption regarding terminally ill individuals seeking to end their suffering: "Maybe all they need is to hear that voice," the page states, "telling them that they are special. That their life has value. That we don't want them to die!" Bastable says his mailbox has been flamed with so much "Christian love" email that it had to be shut down. In his view, the flamers are only managing to "make Austin's life even more miserable than it already is."

"I know I'm doing the right thing," Bastable says. "My reach on the Internet has been worldwide -- Tokyo, New Zealand, Australia, England, Germany. I think there's a saying, 'Too little, too late.' For me, in my limited physical condition, the Internet is 'too much, too late.' "

Editor's note: On May 6, 1996, with right-to-die activist Dr. Jack Kevorkian in attendance, Bastable took his own life.